s gratitude was deeper than this, although, it was true, he
never had thanked him or indicated in any way that he realized or
appreciated what Bruce had done. Nevertheless Bruce had believed that in
his way Toy was fond of him, that deep under his yellow skin there was
loyalty and a passive, undemonstrative affection. Obviously there was
none. He was no different from other Chinamen, it seemed--the white man
and his country were only means to an end.

Bruce would not have believed that anybody with oblique eyes and a
shingled queue could have hurt him so. Of the three men he had
befriended, two had turned the knife in him. He wondered cynically how
soon he would hear from Uncle Bill.

XXII

THE GENERAL MANAGER

Jennings and Woods were now sworn enemies and the stringing of the wires
became a matter of intense interest, as this was the test which would
prove the truth or fallacy of Jennings' cantankerous harping that the
cross-arms were too light.

In isolated camps where there is no outside diversion such tests of
opinion become momentous matters, and the present instance was no
exception. Mrs. Jennings, too, had taken sides--her husband's,
naturally--and the anti-Jennings faction was made to realize fully the
possibilities for revenge which lie within the jurisdiction of the cook.

The alacrity with which Jennings's bride stepped into Toy's shoes
convinced Bruce that the Chinaman had been correct in his assertion, but
he was helpless in the circumstances, and accepted the inevitable, being
able for the first time to understand why there are wife-beaters.

Jennings had opined that his bride was "lasty." She looked it. "Bertha"
stood six feet in her moccasins and lifted a sack of flour as the weaker
of her sex toy with a fan. She had an undershot jaw and a nose so
retrousse that the crew asserted it was possible to observe the
convolutions of her brain and see what she had planned for the next
meal. Be that as it may, Bertha had them cowed to a man, with the
possible exception of Porcupine Jim, whose hide no mere sarcasm could
penetrate. There was general envy of the temerity which enabled Jim to
ask for more biscuits when the plate was empty. Even Smaltz shrank
involuntarily when she came toward him with her mouth on the bias and a
look in her deep-set eyes which said that she would as soon, or sooner,
pour the steaming contents of the coffee-pot down the back of his neck
than in his cup, while Woods ave